We always like to talk about the good old times, before the internet. The past in retrospect always appears rosy. Just imagine how it would be if the internet just vanished!
Seems like an unbelievable catastrophe, does it not? What if, the World Wide Web somehow collapsed into some giant hole, what if there was no internet suddenly and all of us were thrown back into our rosy nostalgia?
Well, well… before I let my fantasy run away with my good sense, let’s stop and think!
A majority of India’s digital population accesses the internet via their mobile phones. In 2018, about 29 percent of the country’s total populations were mobile internet users, and this was expected to grow to over 35 percent, or approximately 500 million users by 2023. (https://www.statista.com)
If you read it again, this means that only one fourth of Indians use the internet through smartphones! If you understand further it means, collapse of the internet would not affect 75% of our population! Is it really that much of a catastrophe now?
The fact is that only those use the internet who can afford it. The new definition of haves and have-nots passes throug the chasm of digital divide. You either own a digital device or not, you are digitally literate or not.
So, it would be presumptuous to imagine that media’s traditional role as the gatekeeper of information is over.Journalists still decide the events worth reporting, and the agendas worth setting.
Those of us on the right side of the digital divide believe that opinions are formed on the digital media platforms and percolate down to the other side. It may partly be true because mainstream press being on the same side as us, follows the online agenda to make news. This folly is leading to elitist agenda being set for all. The new systems of news gathering that relies on tweets and Facebook and Instagram updates of the elite for real time news, has changed the way information is created, distributed and interpreted and the way it affects how people think and behave. It is helpful in many ways but harmful too.
The patterns of news gathering that are emerging are a result of easily available information, free quotes, pictures shared by the celebrities themselves, content being created by the news makers, bytes coming directly from the horse’s mouth! We do realize that these emerging techniques are going to create a generation of lazy newsmen and unreliable journalism.
We need to rethink our roles.
Intenet is not going away but we need to remain relevant today and in the future. Today’s 25% is likely to be 35% by 2023, and in some not so distant future it’s going to be 100%. Have we thought about how relevant will we be then?
What do we do to remain relevant?
Learn the tools of the New Media. Since the algorithm controls every bit of our activity on the internet, we need to learn to beat the algorithm. This would mean that we train the new multimedia journalist, who is comfortable across media, who is able to write and prepare audio and video documentation, knows to edit a quick video, and is able to combine the skills of Content Creation, Design, Use of appropriate interface, and customization for the right audience.
Journalists are the seekers of truth in media; they need to provide the different perspectives of `truth’ through all the media at their disposal. We need to work harder than before because our readers can search and find almost everything that we can. We need to shed the lazy journalism, and roll up our sleeves. The readers and viewers are not going to take the sensationalism anymore, they are not going to tolerate the biases, they have the paraphernalia to verify!
The task befor the journalist of today is mammoth and our users, consumers, or prosumers are not sitting ducks! They act and they react. Its time to get our act together! We need to pull our audience away from sources of misinformation, we need to create the literate media consumers, we need to create such content that is both in public interest and of public interst, we need to be the media they seek out.
. We need to rebuild the trust, we need to bring back the respect, earn back the loyalty! The internet is not going away, and good solid journalism is also here to stay!
Prof. Archana R Singh 